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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 732098

Abele’s Handbag Fix

Item description: leather handbag with stiffened shell and embossed pattern
To be fixed: torn leather handle strap to be mended
E-Textile addition: interior light when open

One evening Abele, who lives in the neighborhood came into the shop to ask if we can fix her leather bag’s handle. We are not a “real” tailor, and more over working with leather is all new to us. But as Rachel, the leather expert was with us at that time, and I was interested in fixing the bag, we took the job to fix it.

Rachel told me to use special leather glue or contact glue for leather. I found this contact glue at Modulor to use for this fix. The inner core of the handle was made with cardboard and it was broken, so I added extra leather piece to enforce the core. it was all glued together and stitched up as it used to be. The leather that connects to the metal ring also was half torn already, so this part is also replaced with new leather. Hopefully this is holding it a bit longer as all the weight will probably on this part.

Most of the side stitch of the handle was also broken, so I ended up taking the old stitches out and stitching all of them new by hand following the existing needle holes. I used thick acrylic thread with two sewing needles on both end, and stitched it as loop. Then back stitched at the end and two ends were tied together.

The closing of the bag was also broken, but we decided it is too difficult to fix or replace this parts as it is. We discussed this issue with Abele and we decided to add magnet button to keep the bag closed, and removed broken leather belt for closing.

Abele originally did not wanted to have any extra electronics embedded. She thought we are normal tailors. As we are Electronics textile tailors, we decided to make a small surprise and embedded a little light inside the bag which turns on when she opens the bag.

Light:

OFF/ON:

Light circuit:

We waited for her feedback before fixing the light. As she was very happy with our little surprise, we fixed the light permanently and handed over to her.